Vermont panel takes testimony on immigrant driver's licenses

Backers say initiative would help overlooked community

Mar. 14, 2013

Written by

LISA RATHKE

Associated Press

MONTPELIER — Immigrant farmworkers and advocates urged a Vermont Senate committee on Thursday to allow those workers to get state driver’s licenses, but the committee chairman said there was no guarantee the bill would move forward in time for a vote this session.

“This is a very unique bill, and I want to make sure that we answer every question,” said Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Dick Mazza.

The bill’s backers told the panel it would help an often overlooked community that serves an important role in the state’s agricultural economy.

Vermont dairy farms employ an estimated 1,500 Mexican farmworkers, many of whom are in this country illegally, who say they are isolated in rural areas and have to get rides from their employer or volunteers or sometimes pay for transportation to the grocery store or doctor.

One farmworker developed a cough but missed some medical appointments because he couldn’t get a ride, so the cough turned into farmer’s lung, Danilo Lopez, a member of Migrant Justice, said through a translator.

“We know that it can be hard sometimes to understand the needs and situations of other people, to put yourselves in other person’s shoes. But we ask you today to please put your hand in your heart and listen to the plea of our community because your decision is part of their future,” he said.

Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Rob Ide, who said the administration of the Gov. Peter Shumlin supports the concept of the bill, reminded legislators that driving in Vermont is a privilege, not a right. Applicants would be required to get a learner’s permit, have to drive with an older driver and take a road test. The DMV would have the capacity to do the additional testing, Ide said.

It would also be responsible for checking the applicant’s documentation, which could be a valid foreign passport; a valid consular identification document issued by the applicant’s home government; or a certified record of the applicant’s birth, marriage, adoption or divorce. The commissioner could require applicants to provide a document or combination of documents.

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Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn, who along with Ide sat on a summer study committee on the topic, said the panel heard testimony about fraud associated with some of the documents that were given as identification.

“It’s very incumbent upon us to be diligent to make sure that there is a validity to the documents so that we’re issuing the license to the person that we believe we’re issuing that document to,” he said.

The bill also could apply to a pool of immigrants beyond the farmworker community.

“That’s certainly a concern as far as the legitimacy of the documents that are being presented,” he said.

Mazza said the proposal has a lot of issues that need to be resolved before it can be voted on by the committee and then the full Senate. He said he wasn’t sure a driver’s license would solve broader issues of worker treatment he said is the responsibility of farmers.

“They shouldn’t have to beg to go to the doctor,” he said.

Daniel Baker, an assistant professor in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics at the University of Vermont, who has studied Vermont’s Hispanic farmworker community, said a survey of 82 Hispanic farmworkers showed that most felt they were treated well by farmers.

He said the greatest obstacle to getting health care was fear of deportation, followed by the language barrier and lack of transportation.